MnAstro Forums

Effective today, 11/2/04, links to images in signature blocks are no longer allowed. The images make it difficult to read posts and follow threads, and in general degrade the experience of the forums.

There is no forum administration option to disable images in signature blocks without disabling images in posts as well, so I'll enforce this policy 'manually', requesting individuals change their signature blocks when needed, or modifying user profiles myself to remove the images.

[I've been contemplating this policy for some time, but I chose not to rock anyone's 'political boat' during the campaign season.]

Questions or concerns regarding this policy can be posted here as a reply, or directly to me via email at kibatme@visi.com.

I think this is a good move. Thanks, Mike.

Dave

Mike,

I agree wholeheartedly with your decision. The political images were amusing the first time I saw them, but they definitely made it difficult to follow the thread of discussion.

I had considered mentioning something, but refrained. Is there a procedure in place now for managing the forums? Or is simply posting in this forum or talking with you directly? Are you the sole decision maker?

Thanks

Ben

Good! I felt all the political e-lawn signs were annoying.

generator wrote:I had considered mentioning something, but refrained. Is there a procedure in place now for managing the forums? Or is simply posting in this forum or talking with you directly? Are you the sole decision maker?

Good questions. As you know, being in charge of the Imaging SIG, all the various forums have individuals assigned as moderators, who can edit and delete posts as they deem necessary. The board members also have moderator privileges for all the forums. So, there is a fairly diverse group looking out for basic content issues and concerns. (Forum moderators are listed at the topic of the forum's table of content page, and clicking their ID will provide the necessary contact information).

I am the only forum 'administrator'. As such, I can delete users, suspend their privileges, turn various options on and off, etc.

For simple changes -- allowing 'avatars' (the little graphics some users include with their posts) or allowing 'smilies' or BBC code in postings for example -- I usually just make the decision and implement the change.

For some changes, I may poll a couple users, particularly those experienced with other phpBB forums.

If I'm concerned that the change might have a more profound impact (adding a new forum), or be perceived as having negative overtones to the user community, I'll check with the board members for their input.

And, as with most things in the MAS, my decisions aren't cast in stone. If someone doesn't like a change, they can contact me directly, or, if they prefer post a public message in this forum expressing that concern. Contacting a board member is also an option, though I hope it's one of last resort!

Hope that clarifies the situation. Bottom line, there are no hard and fast rules. I make a judgement call as to whether I should seek approval from others before making a change. And anyone can disagree with the change or express their concerns to me, publicly or privately to a board member.

Mike

Mike:

For what it's worth (and as one of the two primary offenders) I like your change and welcome it. My only reason for the image I had used was as a counterpoint to the "political advertising" of another member. It will be a great relief to not have to remember to turn it off by the individual message when opposing "lawn signs" aren't in that forum!

Jon Hickman wrote:For what it's worth (and as one of the two primary offenders) I like your change and welcome it.

Oh, and I was 'guilty as charged' once or twice myself!

My only reason for the image I had used was as a counterpoint to the "political advertising" of another member....

As was mine.

And if anyone feels like crying 'Censorship!', recall that there is an off-topic forum where you can (respectfully and within the boundaries of these forums' use agreement) make whatever political, sociological off-the-wall, non-astronomical comments you desire...

... just not by posting images in your signature block!

I also have to say that I agree with the change, even though I was another "abuser" of the priviledge, having done so for the same reason as stated above.

At least I feel better that I turned mine off all of my own accord early this morning, thinking it is inappropriate to have political advertisements on election day.

Thanks, Mike!

Steve

Oops. I forgot that I hadn't signed in, as a result that previous post was by guest. For the record, that was me.

By the way, when I started using it, I was betting that I was going to get yelled at a long time ago for posting a "lawn sign". I was very surprised that I wasn't!

Steve Emert

For what it's worth, Steve, your "lawn sign" didn't offend me a bit!

There is a MOD out there that gives the users the option to not view user signatures, avatars or any other images if they wish. I have this MOD installed on my message board. This MOD also has many other great features..... But... It is not an easy MOD to install.

By the way.... It's called Profile Control Panel. It can be found here:
http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=150925


Here are some of the features:
- Friend and ignore list,
- user-customizable member list,
- list of the subscribed topics,
- online/offline/hidden indicator,
- summer time (DST) management (user and admin),
- user groups display,
- gender (based on gender mod by Niels Chr < ncr@db9.dk >),
- gender on rank titles,
- birthday date, anniversary whish,
- signature preview/editor,
- anti-robotic registration, disabling via ACP,
- realname, phone/fax numbers,
- user information display management by the user and restriction by the admin,
- hide picture (avatar, signature, pic in post),
- admin management from standard user link,
- color for mods, admin and standard user set by the CSS,
- private messages management integrated,

Honestly I think this is a bit extreme. Why not just ban political sigs? Antyhimng astronomy related or neutral could be ok.

Well, that thread degraded into primarily a discussion about political lawn signs only because it was being discussed near or on election day.

In addition to the discussions about the political lawn signs being off-topic for an astronomy forum, the *real* reason for getting rid of pictures in signature blocks was the excessive scrolling everyone had to do. It was just plain annoying, especially with big pictures. Why scroll through the same set of pictures over and over when all you're interested in is the words?

We can have fun with the avatar pictures. That's good enough for me!

well, if a mod was installed to allow users to not display sigs in their profiles, that wouldn't be an issue. Hoesntly I don't see why it is such an issue here but not on the dozen or more other forums I visit, some of which have alrge sig maximums, animated sigs, some even allow flash movies where people have short flicks of the startrek movies replaying in loops. You ought to see the sig I run on the main forum I use...lol